BE THERETim Eitel 2006Presented by PaceWildenstein November 17, 2006- January 20, 2007Reception: November 16, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pmTim Eitel
Tim Eitel, along with several fellow graduates of the Leipzig Academy of Visual Arts, first gained recognition after creating the collective art gallery, Liga, in Berlin in 2001. In 2002, he joined Galerie EIGEN + ART in Berlin. Since that time Eitel’s work has become increasingly well known throughout the international art world. The work in this exhibition, Center of Gravity, reflects a continuation of the artist’s inquiry into the interaction of images. In his paintings, Eitel isolates pictorial elements, which he encounters (and photographs) in the outside world, and combines them into semi-fictitious compositions. These elements, such as a glance, a posture or a position, confer meaning without necessarily generating a narrative. In the end, Eitel extracts, rather than freezes, a moment from time by distilling out all reference to motion and change. The resulting quiet, which can at first appear as isolation or melancholy, transforms into a stillness that allows the viewer complete access into the nuances and resonances of each scene. In 2004, Eitel began to investigate increasingly ambiguous settings for his paintings. Walls, floors and surfaces were more precisely rendered, yet, through a simplification of the composition, they grew more difficult to decipher. A progressively darkening palette brings into sharp focus the edge between the abstract and the pictorial. Grey planes of the subtlest distinction, reminiscent of Rothko or Newman, readily slew into walls and floors in the presence of Eitel’s disinterested subjects (whether a group of school children or a lone shopping cart). The current exhibition continues and extends this investigation with five large-scale and ten small-scale paintings, many of which depict homeless subjects as well as their jerry-rigged carts, packed with belongings. Eitel began showing his work in 2000. Most recently, he has had solo exhibitions at the Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri (2005-6); Museum zu Allerheiligen-Schaffhausen, Switzerland (2004); and Künstlerhaus Bethanien, Berlin (2002). An upcoming exhibition at the Kunsthalle Tübingen, curated by Martin Hellmold, is schedule for November 17, 2007 through January 20, 2008. His work has been included in a traveling exhibition organized by MASS MoCA (2005-6), and in group shows at the Cleveland Museum of Art (2005); Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2005, 2004); Museum der Bildenden Künste, Leipzig (2003); and Frankfurter Kunstverein (2003). This exhibition was made possible with the support of Galerie EIGEN + ART Berlin/Leipzig.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| |||
